Midtown Lunch

Usually when you pick a lunch spot it’s because they have something particularly delicious to check out or a pleasant eating environment. Or the food is dirt cheap. Jeremy’s Ale House on Front St. (btw. Peck Slip & Dover) has only a small fraction of those things, and really my co-lunch’er and I ended up there out of sheer curiousity of what kinds of people would be eating lunch here on a spring-like day. And what would the interior look like with sunlight shining in? The answer to those questions, plus a picture of the tasteful decor after the jump.

It’s true this might make a better ML happy hour post, but really, the only food special they have is good all day so why not have happy hour at lunch? It was as dark and depressing inside as one would imagine, with a lot of men sitting around either drinking from the bar’s trademark giant styrofoam cups of beer, or in the case of a couple of people – taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi to get some work done. I am pretty sure we were the only ones there specifically for the food.

They have a “happy hour” special on the menu of four Jeremy’s Jr. Burgers for $5, or you can get 1 for $1.50. It was such a good deal that we couldn’t pass it up. And we also got the fried clams with fries ($9.95), which the menu boasts were voted best in NY, although by who and when remains a mystery. One thing to note – make sure you look at the prices on the white board above the bar because those on the menu they give you are off by $1 or more. And just forget about looking at the prices on the online menu, which were last updated in 2006.

We grabbed a table by the only window in the place and waited a few minutes for our food while admiring all of the crap (not literally…I don’t think) on the walls and watching some sports on the TVs.

A gigantic platter of clams and fries was handed to me and the four slider-sized burgers were fairly large. The only complaint from my co-lunch’er was that there was something that tasted like French dressing on them instead of ketchup. And you’re also not going to get any cheese at these dirt cheap prices.

I’d have to say the clams were pretty awesome and they were generous with them, so much so that I’m sure you could split this with someone and still come away full and having only spent a small amount for lunch. The fries weren’t that great, but they were just the sideshow to the fried seafood anyway.

In the end eating lunch at Jeremy’s on a beautiful day was just as sad and awesome as you might think: A lot of people drinking and eating solo and trying to pretend it wasn’t 1 p.m. And I think my co-lunch’er summed it up perfectly in an e-mail that said, “You know, Jeremy’s was just what I imagined it to be on a week day afternoon. A little bit fantastic and a little bit gross.”

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• So what if I like to drink a giant beer with my lunch in the middle of the day?
• Free Wi-Fi!
• Almost all of the food is $10 or less.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• What’s up with all of the bras?
• I like testing the limits of where I’ll eat, but this is too far.
• It’s just too dark and sad for lunch purposes.

Jeremy’s Ale House, 228 Front St. (btw. Peck Slip & Dover), (212) 964-3537